How often have I said that a few more days and I will be “caught up” on everything around me. I work and work until I am exhausted, and then I have a day, one day, when I am “caught up”…… before the whole house falls apart before me once again.

Last week I was thinking these thoughts to myself. I am nearly caught up on the washing. I’m nearly caught up on the cleaning. I am nearly caught up on tidying…. and then I stopped. What is this idea of being “caught up” anyway? Where did it come from? Why do I always have the pressure of being “caught up”? And as I pondered these thoughts, I realized that it is a myth. We will NEVER be caught up! Why? Because life goes on.

I can get caught up with the washing, but we continue to wear clothes everyday that eventually will need washing. I may have caught up with all the dishes in the kitchen, but only a few hours later we will use them again. The pressure of being “caught up” with things creates a feeling that once we have finished our chores, we should just be able to relax for a looooong time. Instead, time keeps rolling on and the same chores need to be done again and again.

I think that once we realize that it is not about catching up, but about maintaining and being consistent, a lot of the pressure leaves. Why do we think we must have one day of cleaning frenzy and then we are entitled to have the rest of the week off? Maybe this works for some of us, but reality is that God didn’t mean for us to sit around doing nothing all day. He meant for us to work, “to be busy at home” (Titus 2:5).

My mother has joined the gym. In times past I have also joined the gym. Our bodies no longer get the workout it needs from daily work around the house. My mum called me the other day, exhausted… not from the gym, but she had done some gardening. Her comment was: “This is harder than going to the gym!” I thought about this. In times gone by women worked inside and outside the home without all our modern appliances. They cleaned the floors down on their hands and knees. They made bread without a machine. These women didn’t need to go to the gym, because they did daily hard work.

I wonder if they ever thought they needed to be “caught up”? Somehow I think they knew that they had daily tasks that would repeat day after day. As I read about the homemakers of long ago, I read that they had their days when they did certain major chores like washing, and cleaning on specific days, and everyday chores of making bread and washing dishes were just done naturally. I am not saying they enjoyed this or never complained. But they just did the next thing that needed to be done. Where they ever “caught up”? I wonder….

I think once I get it into my head that being “caught up” is a fairy tale, then I will feel less pressure. I will just go about doing my daily work. I know also that as I declutter my home, my daily work will get less complicated. I am not aiming to have nothing to do. I am aiming for having a welcoming home at all times for people who walk in my door. I am aiming for a reasonably clean and tidy home, so that I can enjoy the people who come to my home, or even just enjoy my family without madly running around the house trying to “catch up” on things.

No, I will never be “caught up”. But somehow it doesn’t bother me as much now……